i5 8250u or Ryzen 5 2500u

[Kendahl Titcomb]

I have the option between 2 laptops consisting of either the i5 8th gen or the newer AMD Ryzen 5 2500u. They both have a 1tb drive and 8gb memory. My question is which one should I get and why. So far my problem is figuring if one will serve me better for simple gaming ( Hearthstone, Fornite only every once in a great while and maybe other simple games) and other light video and photos editing along with basic business use. Im not planning on being a major gamer on this laptop or doing anything like Adobe Photoshop just minor projects for my school work.

 

[TechFreak1]

To be honest both will suit you just fine, but if you're looking for a graphical advantage than go for the Ryzen 5 2500u as it comes with Vega 8 Graphics.

 

[ochhanz]

...

, selection is indeed a lot bigger with Intel. To be frank, I don't think Ryzen 1500u and 2500u / 2700u would have been worth it for most people since at that time OEMs messed up lots of things cooling & driver related.
Nowadays with 3500u / 3700u (Picasso), things are a lot better. Battery life is better, not as much vulnerabilities as Intel chips (=faster long term / real world performance), more dual ram options, drivers can be downloaded from AMD's site too etc. The chips being slightly more efficient which also gives better performance (also because it is harder for OEMs to mess up things). Even Thinkpads T series now also have Ryzen options (that says something about Lenovo taking AMD apu's serious). According to rumors, even Surface (1 or perhaps more) will get a Ryzen option.

The only thing I am still in doubt about is if OEMs can make the 3700u worth it compared to the 3500u (mainly vega 10 vs vega 8), with previous generations they faced similar problems as Intel i5u vs i7u where i7u was practically as fast as the i5u in many laptops while being substantially more expensive. Preferably, cooling solutions & available power would have to be improved with the Ryzen 3700u chips to make the most out of vega 10.